


Human God

by Moonalight



Series: Death's Beloved [9]
Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Drabble, Human!Ryuk - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:53:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28821795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonalight/pseuds/Moonalight
Summary: A week later and Light finally has to deal with his parents' insanity, so it's a good thing Ryuk is there to take him away...
Relationships: Ryuk/Yagami Light
Series: Death's Beloved [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987315
Comments: 4
Kudos: 99





	Human God

******  
Light stopped pretending. 

He stopped trying to be something he wasn’t. Stopped reaching for the things he’d always been told he wanted, been told to aim for. Because none of it interested him. None of it ignited passion in him. 

The prodigy had always been informed, from as young an age as he could remember, that he would be successful. That he would bring home a good wife, deliver honor to his family, and that he’d take over his father’s job when he got older. 

But none of that was what he wanted. Light had never been allowed to explore his own interests. 

Being successful wasn’t really important to him. He already knew that such a thing was boring, and that it made his bad days all the more common. 

Having a wife didn’t tempt him in the least. Sure, he could have his pick. Sure, it was what everyone probably expected from him. But he wasn’t interested in women or men. Doing such a thing would be sentencing himself to a life of unhappiness. 

Honoring his family? 

When had they ever honored him?

And taking over his father’s job as chief of the police? That wasn’t a path he could even imagine taking. The thing he wanted most now, the one thing that he knew for sure-

Light wanted to get away from crimes. From death and bodies; all the things that had stolen away his innocence. 

So he swallowed the insults his family threw his way in the week after Kira’s disappearance. Listening without hearing about how he’d disgraced them. How his rebellious attitude wouldn’t be tolerated, and that he had to do better.

But they couldn’t enforce it. There was nothing for them to take from him. No way to punish him. 

The TV was taken from his room, and that didn’t bother him. His phone was taken, but that also didn’t matter to him. He had no hobbies and he never went out because he actually wanted to. 

There was quite literally nothing for them to use against him. The only thing that had ever mattered to him was his perfect image, and he’d abandoned it. What more could they do?

Sayu refused to speak to him. In all honesty, she might’ve been ordered by their parents to pretend he didn’t exist. Didn’t want his disgracefulness to rub off on her, after all. She was a backup to him, and expected to turn out the exact same as he had. 

And Light wouldn’t dare ruin that for them. 

Ryuuzaki actually paid his house a visit for the first time after he was grounded. Poking and prodding, saying things that surely would’ve gotten him to react just a short time before. 

But now they meant nothing. He couldn’t trick anything out of him, and all the detective got was the truth. Admitted in the privacy of his room, under the guise of having to tell someone. 

And why not his ‘friend’?

Light told him he couldn’t take it anymore. The expectations, the pressure, the fact that he had no control of his life-

A whole story that actually seemed to affect the other boy. By the end, Ryuuzaki was honestly wide eyed and affected by it. Softer than he’d ever been with the crimson eyed genius, and willing to leave without much more digging. 

All the while through that encounter, he wasn’t alone either. Light was almost never alone anymore. He had a shinigami as his shadow, embracing him. Wrapping his lanky arms around the human to help support him as he spilled the sob story that was sadly truthful. 

Maybe that's why Ryuuzaki believed him. For once, there was no mask. No lies or deception. Just sad, stark reality.

Ryuk disappeared a couple times over that week, but the mortal didn’t ask where he went. He wasn’t a god, not like the shinigami was. Sometimes gods had business to attend to. 

He just waited with baited breath until the immortal returned to join him in bed for the night. 

The only reason he was able to keep himself together. 

Oh, Light still went to school. But he didn’t bother to do the things he didn’t want to, and he only attended because he didn’t want to deal with his parents if he ditched again. 

It was funny how quickly people’s perceptions of him changed. One decision made for his own good, and suddenly there was much more animosity pointed in his direction. 

Whispers behind his back, hissed insults and gossip. Rumors that were in no way truthful, but that didn’t bother him. He didn’t have any friends in school after all. And Ryuk was the only one that mattered. Ryuk, who would have one sided conversations with him to pass the time in class. 

His teachers had even started to disapprove of him. Likely because he didn’t even bother to pretend to pay attention, yet he still got all the perfect answers. 

It only took three days into the week for the first big change. 

Ryuk had suddenly dragged him down a different road than the one he’d been using to walk home. Having gone off when something caught his eye a while back, only to return and physically pull Light in a different direction. 

Some of the school guys had been waiting to ambush him in an alley. Jealousy that had only gotten worse since he stopped trying to be perfect, that they were finally going to act on. 

Somehow, there was something about him just trying to honestly be himself that made people dislike him. 

But he loved it. 

He loved every glare. Every snidely hidden insult, every hissed word. In only a week, everyone around him had proven how utterly fake they were. How completely they only cared about him because of his perfection.

But he only loved himself when he let the perfection fall away. 

And Ryuk seemed happier about it too. 

Light kicked off his shoes in the entryway as he closed the door to the house, trying to be as quiet as possible while he waited. And he didn’t have to wait long. It only took a couple minutes. 

A couple minutes for Ryuk to return, a warning on his lengthy tongue that both of his parents were waiting in the kitchen. With a tone so grim that the human just wanted to turn and leave again. 

But facing them was the only way he’d get them to understand. And if they didn’t, then he could at least say he tried. Honestly, they’d never tried to understand him anyway. 

The seriousness of the scene he walked in on didn’t really make staying the most appealing option though. He only mustered up the false bravado thanks to Ryuk’s constant presence, hovering over his shoulder, ready to help however he needed. 

The shinigami was the only reason he’d gotten through any of this. 

“Mother, Father,” he greeted them both with a nod, careful not to react when hissed news entered his ear. Cool air blown close to his neck, informing him of the third family member listening in from upstairs. 

Look at that. Him being happy and trying to actually feel good about life was enough to warrant a family intervention. That was so bad, he almost wanted to laugh. 

And when his stoic father pushed a baggy across the table toward him, he really wanted to laugh. 

“Seriously?” He heard Ryuk ask, and the immortal didn’t even have to hide his laughter. Cackling in disgusted amusement at his shoulder, reaching out to place a clawed hand over Light’s shoulder in physical support. 

It really was ridiculous. 

“A drug test?” The prodigy asked in disbelief, and his small, puffing chuckle probably didn’t help matters. It only made his parents scowl even more, seeming honestly worried. 

“We just want to help you Light,” his mother whispered softly, such a troubled look on her face that she seemed close to tears. And he really shouldn’t have felt so amused by it, he knew that. 

But this was just the cherry on top. 

He stopped being perfect, so the only answer had to be drugs? Or maybe alcohol? Did they think he ditched school to go hang out with delinquents, mugging people every night too?

“We’ve been too lenient with you,” and those words from his father killed any amusement he felt. His breath caught in his throat, forming a lump there as he clenched his hands under the table. 

Immediately the shadow over him was shifting, and suddenly he had two arms wrapped over his chest. Not even caring if the indents in his clothes were noticeable as breath hissed out above his hair, his head pulled gently back into a bony form behind him. 

“That’s on us,” his father admitted, acting as though he was truly regretful. Then spilling more words that turned muted to Light’s hearing. 

“Don’t listen to him,” Ryuk’s low voice rumbled out over him; the only voice he could comprehend as he watched the man’s lips move, but didn’t hear any of the sentences afterward. 

Too lenient?

Too lenient?!

“Light, leave. You don’t have to listen to this,” the god’s order was the only thing he needed. The only thing he could understand in this world anymore as the embrace fell from around him, giving him the space he needed to push back his chair with a loud screech. 

“I’ll take care of you,” Ryuk’s promise was the last bit of encouragement he required. Not sparing another look to his startled looking spawners as he shouldered his backpack, turning to find the towering form walking for the door. 

And he followed.

Rushing after the quickly moving form, hearing more chairs scrape across wood as his parents tried to rush after him. Shouting something that he didn’t bother to pay attention to as he grabbed his shoes from the entryway. 

Not until a hand was grabbing at his shoulder to roughly twist him around. So quickly that he almost fell back, staring wide eyed at his father’s furiously twisting face in front of him. 

“Light, don’t walk away from us!” The man shouted, so loud and roaring that he felt spit splatter across his cheek as he tried to flinch back, “We’re your parents, and that means you should respect us!” 

Respect? Respect the man that was practically bruising his shoulder, screaming at him, using his imposing personality to scare his son?

“Let go of me!” Light shouted right back, but his voice was much higher. Honest fear filling him when he felt those fingers grip tighter over his clothes, watching as his father’s face grew more fearsome and angry. 

Until the front door was thrown open, practically shaking the house with how hard it hit the wall. 

“You heard him,” a low voice growled out behind him. A voice that he knew well, and couldn’t understand why his father seemed to react to it. 

So he turned his head back over his shoulder, and he froze up in confusion. 

“Who are you?” His father demanded shortly, his hand at last loosening around Light’s shoulder as he grew tense towards the intruding, “Breaking and entering is a criminal offense. I suggest-”

"I suggest you listen and let go of him.”

The restrained human blinked, staring wide eyed at the man behind him. The human man, with a voice that he knew to belong to a shinigami. Wearing the same clothes as his death god, in addition to a black, shaded motorcycle helmet. 

The form was all wrong. The body was definitely a human male, and not the lanky, towering form of Ryuk. 

But he couldn’t mistake that voice. 

“Get out, or I’m calling the police!” He heard his mother shout, and then the hand holding onto him tried to pull on him. To drag him back further into the house maybe. To protect him as his ‘honorable’ father surely would try to do.

But-

“Light,” Ryuk only had to call his name. That’s all he had to do. He said his name in that reassuring, softened tone that he used when he wanted to help him. 

And he didn’t bother to question the strangeness of the situation. The impossibility of it all. 

He just wrenched back toward the man, yanking his arm free from his father’s grasp. Not giving him another chance to try and contain him. Light couldn’t stand to stay a moment longer. 

Ryuk had said he would take care of him. 

“Light!!” 

But he didn’t even care about the adults rushing to grab him as a leather gloved hand wrapped around his outstretched wrist. Turning, and tugging him along as the biker hurried out of the house. 

Straight out into the driveway, where he found a black bike was parked near the street. 

“Light, come back! Sachiko, call the police!” 

The human glanced back to find his father trying to race out after him, but his older body couldn’t move as fast as them. Giving the fleeing pair ample time to reach the bike, which Light was quickly thrown onto. 

“Hold onto me Light,” Ryuk’s voice told him as he slid smoothly onto the seat in front of him, turning the key of the bike to start it up with a mechanical roar. Revving it as the elderly man closed the distance between them. 

A man that frightened him. 

A god that saved him. 

Between those two options, Light knew what he’d choose. 

The high schooler tugged the other strap of his backpack over his shoulder, then wrapped his arms around the leather jacket in front of him. Gripping on firmly as the kickstand was pushed up, and the bike had to balance without it. 

Only until the momentum kicked in though. 

He heard his father shout his name again, but it was carried away by the roaring in his ears. The fast thudding of his heart as he curled forward into that unfamiliar form, feeling the bike vibrate under him as it took off. 

Wind blew past him, but his face was buried into the black leather. He didn’t look at anything, didn’t think about any of it as he was taken away.

Away from his home by the god that had saved him.


End file.
